A Watchwher Guardian
by Kittisbat
Summary: Shardock Beast Hall got their watchwher, but something isn't right. Why is its name Daysk, when its handler is Yuellan? And why is it so big? Rated T for safety. Not one of those "Person has horrible life, gets Searched, Impresses," stories.
1. It All Started With an Egg

Author's Note: I had to take a break from A New Pern. Believe it or not, I have been working on it a lot, and have realized that I basically bug myself into a deep hole and I don't know how to get out. I'm starting to think I should just go back and revise the whole thing, but that is such a pain….

**Anywho, this is me getting my mind off of that story. This one actually takes place on Pern, sometime after Aivas and the whole engine thing, but with some people still remembering Thread. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, you'll have to read the book. I'm not spoiling it for you.) Oh, and I don't own Pern, any of Anne McCaffrey's books, yada yada, it's a fanfiction and garners no profit. If the name is in one of the books, (though I doubt any will,) it's not mine.**

"Daya, where do think you're goin'?"

"I want to go see the egg, of course!" Daya informed the drudge as if it should have been obvious.

Daya knew she had been giving the poor lady a hard time lately, and she felt bad about it, but when her father had picked Arsla for the job, he knew that. It wasn't everyone who could keep a grip on the slippery Daya.

"Oh no you're not! Your father gave me sp'ific orders to keep you 'way from the poor lad. He doesn't want you distracting him from his job or otherwise bother him. It's hard to prove your worth to that queen, and even harder to actually take care 'uv the egg!"

"It's not _that_ hard," Daya muttered under her breath, but dutifully walked away from the door. Her father was a MasterHerdsman, and he wouldn't hesitate to beat her for being disobedient. Besides, if Daya _did_ escape Arsla, the drudge would be beaten, and Daya certainly didn't want _that_ on her conscience.

_After all, _she thought maliciously, _I can always sneak out tonight, while everyone else is asleep._

So Daya let the drudge follow her around as she went about her chores. They were simple around-the-house things, but she had escaped from most of them before. In the laundry room there was a window that was never locked, the kitchen had a door within running distance, and the barn was full of hiding places and escape routes, much too many to name.

The best way to leave the house undetected, however, was the secret passage in Daya's room. It still hadn't occurred to her parents that its existence could mean an easy escape, and most of the drudges were unaware of its existence at all. Daya had found it one day while playing with her best friend, Lyola.

In her closet, hidden by some dresses and coats, there was a small trap door that led into the crawlspace. The crawlspace then ran under the house, the barn, and even into a couple of the other houses, though there weren't anymore trap door that allowed Daya into them. She guessed they hadn't yet been built at the time the crawlspace was.

So Daya spent the day supervised by Arsla. After finishing up her chores, she managed to go play with her ramshackle group of friends. But being supervised prevented them from getting into their normal mischief, Daya's gang consisted of Lyola, and a bunch of rowdy boys, but they still managed to startle a few herdbeasts into stampede and set loose a runner or two during a game of hide-and-seek. Eventually, though non too soon for Daya's tastes, the dinner bells started ringing and the children scattered to their houses. Daya ate her supper silently, then headed out with everyone else to the Center Square of the Shardok Beast Hall, a relatively new Hall, to listen to the resident Harper. He played some old favorites, a new one or two, and then everyone went off to their own homes once more. Daya went straight to bed, and pretended to be asleep until her parents came and checked on her before heading off to their own beds.

Daya clambered out of bed as quietly as she could and slipped on her slippers to keep out the cold of the stone floor. Daya had asked her parents once why they still had a stone floor when they could stretch out with wood, but they simply said, "We feel safer in rock." They had only been children when the last Pass had ended, but apparently Thread scared people in more ways than one.

She slid her closet door open quietly, climbed in, and lifted the trap door open. She had oiled the hinges recently, so they barely made any sound at all as she closed the door back over her head. Daya had to blink once or twice to adjust her eyes to the dark, but then she set off towards the closest exit to the watchwher shed.

Though watchwhers were typically used for guarding a Hold of valuables, the Beast Halls had quickly discovered their other uses as well. With their exceptional seeing, they could easily guard the herdbeasts and runners from predators like wherries and the big cats that were so common in the South. They could also help find any of the animals that had escaped from the herd, and often warned their handlers of dangers in enough time for them to prepare. One such watchwher saved a whole herd from a tornado, the storm that surrounded it, and many of it's after affects. The result had been a higher demand in watchwher eggs.

So when the new, small Shardock Beast Hall had purchased their watchwher egg, it had both been big news and expensive. It had also been a great risk. They had paid about a year's worth of meat for the queen watchwher, marks, a couple of runners, and some odd other things all thrown in for a _chance_ at watchwher. The queen had to first approve of the candidate before she would allow him to take an egg, and even then the egg wasn't guaranteed to hatch _or_ bond to said candidate. Still, if it all turned out right, it would be worth it.

Daya knew this, which was part of the reason she was so excited about seeing the egg. The other part was that she wasn't allowed to, and her friends hadn't. It would give her something to brag about at the next meeting. With this in mind, she opened the next trap door, crawled out, and made her way over to the watchwher shed.

It was actually less of a shed and more of a cabin. It was about as big as a cabin, just with a heavy leather door instead of a wooden one so that the watchwher would more easily be able to exit. Inside, the egg was currently being incubated.

Daya, with stealth learned from her fifteen turns, slipped in through the leather door without the Candidate, as everyone had taken to calling him, waking. He was curled up on a mat of straw with furs thrown over it next to what Daya assumed to be the egg.

It was very dark in the shed. At the far end, the wall opposite to the door, there was a large fireplace with a few glowing embers keeping the place warm. Hanging over the embers was a big cauldron, with something vile smelling cooking inside. Scattered across the floor, so thickly that you couldn't even see that it was rock, was straw. In the middle, it rose slightly as if it were covering large, stone bricks, and then in the middle of_ that_ was another mound, covered by even more straw.

Daya tiptoed over to the mound and silently brushed away some of the straw. There, under the entire straw and quite warm to the touch, was the egg. It was near to impossible to see what color it was in the dim lighting, but it was defiantly an egg. It reminded Daya of a blanket she had once thrown on the floor that had collapsed in a wrinkly heap, for that was exactly was this egg looked like. She brushed her fingertips over its surprisingly hard surface, when she felt it move.

It was as if under that pile of blankets there was a creature, and the creature had given a great shudder. Daya's eyes widened, and she backed away from the egg, still uncovered. It gave another shake, and straw started spilling off. She knew what it meant. The egg was _hatching._

How could it be hatching so early? Daya wondered. Of course, maybe it wasn't early after all. The egg had only been at the Hall for about three days, but who knows how long it had been hardening before that? Daya quickly hid in the shadows, and hoped the Candidate wouldn't notice. She wasn't about to leave just when everything got interesting!

The egg gave a loud _crack,_ and the Candidate jumped into a sitting position. He immediately turned to the egg, as if by habit, and saw a large crack down its wrinkly side. Another one appeared, sprouting from the first. Then a third, and the whole thing shattered. Where an egg should have been, the ugly form of a small watchwher was crumpled; it's disgustingly huge eyes looking out at the boy.

Then it did the worst thing it could have done. It turned to _Daya_.

Daya tried to send a message to it telepathically, like she heard those with firelizards did. She told the hatchling to turn away, go to the Candidate, to bond with him so he would become the new watchwherhandler.

With a grunt, it turned its wrinkly head back to the Candidate, and let out a hungry shriek. He started feeding the creature spoonfuls of the revolting mixture from the cauldron, and Daya used the distraction to escape back to her own house. She silently slipped back into her own bed, as if nothing at all had happened.


	2. Nights Spent Out of Bed

**Author's Note: Fixed a few mistakes in the first chapter. I don't own Pern, Dragonriders of Pern, the whole idea of Pern's entire world, etc. Oh, and free virtual cookies to anyone who reviews. ;)**

Daya woke to a loud pounding on the kitchen door. Normally, people would use the dinning room door, so this must have been important.

Daya struggled into a house coat and heard her parents across the hall doing similar. She scurried quickly into the kitchen, her parents not far behind, and yanked open the door.

One of Daya's friends, a young boy, stood grinning from ear to ear in the doorway. "It's hatched! It's hatched! We have a new watchwher! It's hatched!" Then he scampered off to the next house.

Sharth, Daya's father, went back to his room to struggle on some real clothes. Being the master of the Hall, it was his job to check on both the watchwher and the boy it had bonded. Daya shrugged on some clothes of her own and started to follow her father when he spun around to stop her.

"No, Daya. You're not coming."

"Oh, come on, Dad! You wouldn't let me see the egg, the least you can do is let me see the watchwher!"

"No, you're not- Oh shards!" Out of the corner of his eye, Sharth had seen the crowd surrounding the shed. That, and the trouble Yuellan, previously known as the Candidate, was having with the watchwher. "Shards, people! Give the boy some room!"

Daya used the distraction to wiggle her way into the crowd, and, hidden by the chaos, slip inside the shed.

The watchwher had been trying to escape the shed, but in the bright light of day it would hurt its photosensitive eyes. Yuellan didn't want the poor creature hurt, and was shoving the great head of the watchwher from the other side of the "door." Daya's entrance immediately distracted it, giving Yuellan some quick relief. Watchwhers were strong!

The beast turned its ugly head to Daya and licked her face happily. "Be good," she whispered back. It butted he knees with its knarled head playfully. Daya responded by scratching its eyeridge affectionatly and then becoming serious again. "I'm going to have to leave. I'll come visit again, I promise, but you have to be good for Yuellan. Understand?"

It gave a gurgling grunt as if it did.

Daya gave it a pat on the head and started feeling the dark walls for a door; she wouldn't be able to escape the shed quite as easily as she had entered. As the watchwher settled itself down in the middle of the floor, Daya heard an odd, hollow, _thud._ She expertly cleared away the straw lying on top of where the sound had come from at her feet. Carefully feeling the floor, she found a latch and pulled. The trap door easily opened, but gave a slight _screech_ in the process. She quickly clambered down the hole and made a mental note to "acquire" some more oil.

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Daya managed to get out of supervision with promises and good behavior. She and her gang quickly started up their mischeif again in response. They stole some hot breads from the kitchens, started riding around a few runners (for which they were quickly caught and scolded,) and Daya managed to get her oil. With only a little effort, she managed to smuggle it into her room and left it carefully hidden on top of the trap door in her closet.

When sent to bed that night, after the usual check-up from her parents, Daya escaped down into the crawlspace. It only took a short while of searching before Daya had the right door, and then she crawled carefully out to the waiting watchwher.

As soon as it laid its oversized eyes on her, the ugly beast charged in that direction. Yuellan rolled over in his sleep, but didn't wake. Daya shushed the watchwher and closed the trap door before quickly oiling it. She tiptoed around Yuellan and greeted her new friend properly, with a short hug and a scratch on the eye ridge.

Daya played with the young watchwher for a while, even feeding it some of the mush, before once again disappearing down her rabbit hole and re-appearing at her own house. She went to sleep, and all too soon for her, she was being woken up once again.

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Days continued to pass in this fashion, though rumors had started to spread. Everyone was mystified by Yuellan's lack of bond with the watchwher, though the watchwher apparently was doing fine. People were also speculating by how big the creature had grown, (occaisonally they would see it on midnight-walks,) much larger than they were used to. The Harper was growing annoyed by Daya's constant sleep issues during lessons, and more rumors, in the way that rumors go about, started branching off from that as well.

"She's helping plan an invasion and Yuellan is in on it! The watchwher isn't a hatchling at all, either, it was sent by the invasion to spy on us and is actually a small adult!" Or, "Yuellan and his watchwher go into Daya's room at night and tortcher her so she is unable to sleep! But the watchwher likes Daya, and grows distant from Yuellan." A more common and logical, but still incorrect one: "Daya is doing bad in classes, so she takes night classes, but they don't work either! And who knows about watchwhers? They are strange creatures." The list went on and on.

One day, Yuellan came up to Sharth, looking nervous. "Master Sharth, I, uh, have some troubling news…."

"Is it about the watchwher?" he immediately asked, becoming nervous himself.

"Yes…. I tried to get it to tell me its name and…. Well, it seems to know its name, but wont tell me!"

Sharth's relief was obvious. "Oh, is that all? I'm sure it's nothing."

"Sir, I don't mean to contradict you, but…."

For the very reason of caring for a watchwher in the future, Yuellan had been sent to a school to learn how to care for them. He learned their lore, how to communicate with them, even how they saw _heat_ instead of the colors and pictures our eyes show us. He was very good at the class, which was why he had been chosen to become a candidate for an egg and why the price had been paid. There had still been a risk, but they hadn't thought it very high. They had been right, but it was obvious to everyone that something _was_ wrong.

"Don't worry about it, lad!" Sharth replied. "If it continues in a week or so, then come see me. But just once…. Well, it's not much to worry yourself over, now is it?"

"That's just it! It has been a week! I waited to be sure, but…. I couldn't wait any longer! I think that, somehow, it hasn't bonded to me, but to someone else!"

The cool air that had been surrounding Sharth shattered. "But… How? It's not…. Not possible…. Who?" he blubbered.

"That's part of the problem, sir. I don't know who." Of course, he had a fairly good guess, but he didn't add that.

A/N: Sorry it took so long. I forgot I hadn't posted this…. I'll add a longer chapter soon, I promise! I just had to wrap this one up without giving to horribly much away…. (Though I bet some of you can already predict the ending ;) )


	3. A Surprise That Left Some Dead

**A/N: Sorry for the wait. I started writing it one way, but I didn't like it that way. I decided I throw in some sadness as well as a nice little twist.**

Daya hadn't been paying much attention to the Harper at night anymore. She was already thinking ahead, ready to sneak out and see the watchwher again. The creature, not half so small now, would always be waiting by the trap door for her, and Yuellan would always be asleep. Daya had never concerned herself much about Yuellan, and never thought of him as the watchwhers bonded. Why should she? In fact, she never much thought of Yuellan at all.

That night, as usual, the watchwher was waiting for her. Carefully tip-toeing around Yuellan, they went over to the other side of the shed to play, for as Daya had quickly found our, the watchwher was in that stage where all it wanted to do was play. They would play hide-and-go-seek, though the young watchwher always won, or tag, fetch, keep-away, whatever struck Daya at the moment and entertained her ugly friend. Tonight, though, it was different. The watchwher wasn't as excited, as ready to play. Daya tried to start a game several times, but it only sat down as if it were waiting for her to get bored with such childish games.

So Daya crawled over to the watchwher, who put its great head in her lap, and stroked its head and scratched its eye ridge. Then, Daya got the oddest feeling. She _felt_ the watchwher telling her something, though no words or sounds came to her mind or out of its mouth. Then, she knew what it wanted. It was telling her its name!

"You know your name," she murmured to the beast, stroking its head. "How smart you are. Daysk! Oh what a wonderful name…."

Life continued as was normal, with only a few exceptions. Yuellan still couldn't get Daysk to cough up her name, and Daya remained tired all day. A couple seven-days passed, and then something happened.

Everyone was asleep. Well, almost everybody. Daya was awake, as usual, and Yuellan was out on a midnight walk with Daysk. Suddenly, the "leash" on Daysk went tense, and she was pulling Yuellan in the opposite direction. "Watchwher! What's the matter with you?"

Daysk made distressed whimpering and clicking sounds, squeaks and _hrr-hrrrrs_. They had been walking in a circular fashion around the sprawling Hall, and had been headed to Sharth's stone house carved into the cliff side, he was one of the few left that chose not to dwell in one of the wooden houses, but something had spooked the watchwher. Yuellan didn't understand, they had been by the house so often before…. Then the great beast tugged away again, almost knocking Yuellan off his feet. It was looking at the ground, as if searching for something…. And then it had it! It charged forward and started digging into the ground, digging as if the watchwhers very life depended on it.

Daya had been in the crawlspace, unaware Daysk was out on a walk, and had been crawling toward the great shed when dirt, and big clumps of it, too, started falling on her head. She looked up, only to look down again as dust fell in her eyes and made her cough. She could hear sound of digging, but why would anyone be digging here this late at night? Suddenly, Daysk's great head pushed through the hole, and as gently as possible, grabbed a hold of Daya. The watchwher started tugging and pulling her up out of the crawlspace, much to Daya's distress.

"Daysk! Daysk, what are you doing?! Please, Daysk, let me-" Then Daya was above ground, and staring at Yuellan wide-eyed.

"Did you just call her Daysk?" he asked, surprised, but at the same time, expectant.

"I- uh, well…."

"I thought it was you," he murmured to himself, and was almost shoved off his feet by the impatient watchwher again.

It was making the oddest of noises. _Grrr-nnnn. Ssssissk! Grrrr…._

"Yuellan, she wants us to _move._ Something's not right. I thought, after taking all those lessons, you'd realize that…."

"Yes, I suppose we'd bett- did you say _she?_"

"Later, Yuellan! We need to move _now!_"

"If we're in danger, what about the rest of the Hall?"

Daysk made sounds deep in her throat that sounded approving.

"I'll get the right side, you get the left."

The pair hurried from door to door, Daysk not even bothering to pretend she didn't belong to Daya, knocking and yelling to run for the fields. At first the families woke up grumbling, complaining about pranksters. Then they would walk outside to yell at them, find them at different doors already, and see the red in the watchwher's eyes as well as the two's obvious distress. Then they would quickly gather the few items that would be needed and run.

They got most of the people, the people Daysk said wouldn't be safe, and then Daya tried to run back to her house. Daysk wouldn't hear of it. Then, suddenly, it happened.

The rock must have been teetering on the edge all night, it had only needed a strong gust of wind. It sat on the top cliff, just barely away from the sharp, jutted point that wouldn't hold a firelizard's weight. The wind had moved it less than a finger length, and then it came tumbling down the almost-horizontal wall of rock.

As it went, it gathered more rocks and speed. The rock fall threw dust in the air, and broke away part of the cliffside. Then the pile of rock and rubble landed squarely on Daya's house, and it settled.

"No!" Daya cried out in horror. Daysk muttered an unhappy growl. She turned to Yuellan, her eyes as big as a fish's, and practically yelled, "We have to dig them out!"

"Yuellan looked down at her sadly. "They can't have survived that, Daya. They can't have."

"No, no no no no," she muttered to herself, tears stinging her eyes. "They have to 'uv. They can't die, they can't…."

Daysk curled up protectively around Daya, and Yuellan awkwardly tried to stroke her hair. She shoved him away.

"Go 'way. Don't want you hear…. Go 'way…."

Daysk snuffled at Daya's face and then put her foreleg down in an odd position, as if offering for Daya to climb on her back. Daya sniffed and looked up at the sky. "'Course Daysk," she muttered sadly. "Back to the shed where it's dark. 'Course Daysk…." She clambered on the creature's back and it carried her to the unharmed shed.


End file.
